Archive for the ‘tucker Sno-Cat’ tag

* In the 1960s, Belgium used a couple Tucker Sno-Cats – emblazoned with logos designed by Tin Tin artist Hergé – to explore Antarctica. The Sno-Cats were relegated to a quiet abandonment up until recently, when some thief cut out just the logos from the sides of the Sno-Cat bodies, causing an uproar in the urban exploration community. PetaPixel has more on the story.

* Torchinsky this week had a story on Jalopnik about the Nyayo Pioneer, the first car developed in Kenya, which, despite all sorts of promises, never reached production.

* As Michael Satterfield wrote this week on TheGentlemanRacer, an L.A. task force descended on a popular Wednesday night tuner car get-together, ostensibly looking for stolen cars and evidence of street racing, but effectively harassing everybody in attendance about their car’s modifications. “It seems California law enforcement is cracking down on So Cal Car Culture like they did in the early 2000’s,” he wrote.

* The Alexander Brothers never finished their 1964 sedan pickup project, dubbed the Alexandria, before selling it, but it remains on Mike Alexander’s mind 50 years later, and the Jalopy Journal has put out the call for leads on its current whereabouts.

Inspired by yesterday’s Six Degrees of Automotive Separation Challenge, I went looking through the Hemmings.com classifieds to see if we had any Tuckers for sale. We did indeed have a listing for the 48 that RM’s auctioning off in Monterey this weekend, but we also showed a listing for this 1999 Tucker Terra Medicat, the evolution of the Sno-Cat. While I’m not one to get too excited over equipment, a Tucker is kind of like a Unimog in that it transcends pure functionality to attain coolness. From the seller’s description:

The Tucker Sno-Cat is a fairly unique and easily identifiable vehicle, but one which we’ve not really read much about until recently, when we added the January 1957 issue of Mechanix Illustrated to our growing collection of MI issues. In that issue, we not only find a flight-of-fancy story on interchangeable bodies for cars (which Ryan at the Jalopy Journal highlighted last year), but also a four-pager on the history of the Tucker Sno-Cat, the invention of Emmitt Tucker. All good inventors are named Emmitt, right?

In the same issue, we also see a one-pager on a custom-built fiberglass car built by electrician Ken Mace. Anybody know where this car is today? Pretty much all we’ve seen on it so far is a random listing in an old race newsletter that refers to the car in a November 1955 race as a “Wildfire Cad” – it DNF’d.

UPDATE (18.November 2009): Our friend Geoff Hacker did some digging on Ken Mace’s car and came up with the following:

This beautiful sports car was constructed by Mr. Mace in approximately two months. He purchased a Wildfire frame kit from Woodill Motor Co. (with special engine and transmission mounts) and transferred the running gear from a 1940 Ford to the Wildfire frame. A new Cad engine and Hydromatic [sic] were mated to the early Ford shaft and rear end. A Jeep hot climate radiator was installed and the chassis was complete. The Wildfire body, with custom front and rear fender additions, was bolted to the chassis; bumpers, instruments, etc. were installed and there was Mr. Mace’s own Wildfire. Built by an amateur with no special tools. No cutting. No welding.

Notice no mention of an inspiration by Mechanix Illustrated in that Woodill-provided writeup.

* Over at the H.A.M.B., member mynameisnotpete just announced that Gene Winfield’s 1935 Ford shop truck recently resurfaced and is headed into the resto shop. Probably just as cool, he promises to keep posting updates as the restoration progresses. Probably not the greatest hot rod archaeological find of the century, but a significant one nonetheless.

*Â We’ve all seen that photo of the Tucker Sno-Cat on the Trans-Antarctic Expedition, straddling a chasm in a situation that seems rather hopeless. And we’ve all wondered whether that Sno-Cat’s still there, because it’s hard to imagine any way out of the situation. But Jesse, the just a car guy guy, recently found some home video from the expedition that shows just how the expedition members extricated the Sno-Cat from the chasm.

* Who wouldn’t want to hang out in an old warehouse, surrounded by cars and car buds? It’s like an adult version of the no-girls-allowed treehouses we built as kids, and a group of guys in San Francisco are making it a reality. Garage Magazine has the scoop on the Pirates Cove.